This is the second Stevyn Colgan novel that I’ve read and maybe the third or fourth of his books overall. This one picks up from where the last one left off, although you can also read it as a standalone, which is the case with most murder mystery stories that I’ve come across. This one’s a bit different to the others though, because it has a deep sense of humour underlying it that makes it an unusual blend of mystery and comedy.

Colgan does it great, but perhaps that’s because he used to be a policeman and so he’s writing about what he knows. The same could be said of the setting – the fictional British county of South Herewardshire – which is clearly based on High Wycombe, the town that both Colgan and I happen to live in. I also like how it built on his fictitious writer, Agnes Crabbe, and how it even had a reference to books by Ariadne Oliver, who was one of Agatha Christie’s characters. It was a cool little crossover.

The only bone that I have to pick here is with the depiction of animal rights activists, which was kind of at odds with the way that most of the groups that I know of are known to work and function. But then, this is a comedy book as much as a mystery book, and so I think we can be too picky with things like that.

All in all though, I was pretty happy with this and I’m glad that I picked it up – and that I supported it through the launch campaign with Unbound, too. If you like humour and murders, give this a go.